DENVER — When Cherryville Post 100 began its American Legion baseball season in late May with three straight losses, most figured it a certainty the team’s record-setting streak of six consecutive North Carolina Area IV titles would come to an end this year.

It came to that predicted end on Saturday night in a Game 5 Area IV semifinal playoff loss to Lincoln County.

Certainly, some of the most ardent of Post 100 supporters may think of the season as a disappointment. After all, when you win as much as Cherryville has, it creates some unrealistic expectations among those in the fan base.

But even in the season in which the record streak of winning area titles came to an end, Post 100 revealed the kind of heart, resolve and scrappiness that had marked its recent streak of titles.

That was on full display in a best-of-five series with a nearby rival in which each of the last three games were decided by one run — and the winner knew it would be heading to this week’s North Carolina state tournament in Wilson.

“Effort is the word I would use,” said Cherryville coach Bobby Reynolds, who has guided Post 100 to 11 Area IV titles in his 21 seasons there as coach. “That’s the first thing that comes to my mind. Every time in North Carolina, either you win a state championship or you lose your last game. That’s just how it is — and this year we lost our last one.”

And while Cherryville has been super successful in its storied Legion baseball history — two World Series runner-up finishes, three regional championships, seven state titles and 16 Area IV championships — it has never won its last game.

That goal will remain for Reynolds, who finished the 2013 season with 668 career coaching victories — or 26 shy of the state record held by Rowan County’s Joe Ferebee.

“We left a lot out there on that field,” Reynolds said after Saturday’s loss in which Cherryville led 1-0 through 4 1-2 innings before Lincoln County’s Danny Sullivan’s fifth-inning grand slam home run gave the Cardinals a lead they would never relinquish in a 5-4 victory. “That’s how it should be. I mean,what a game, what a series and what an experience.”

And with that, Reynolds not so subtly turned his attention to the future.

“Fifteen of the 18 can return,” Reynolds said of his 2013 roster. “So we’ll have some experience coming back. But they’ll need to be bigger and better — or we’ll lose again.”

That competitive fire has driven Reynolds since he was a player that helped Cherryville win two Area IV titles and one state title in the early 1980s — and it has burned the fiercest as a coach in recent years.

Can Cherryville reclaim its Area IV championship next season?

If Reynolds can get as much out of next year’s team as he got out of this year’s team, there’s no doubt they’ll be one of the favorites.

You can reach Richard Walker at 704-869-1841 or by twitter.com/JRWalk22